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Tuesday, April 15th, 2003

TIPPING THE ZENPUNDIT HAT TO THE FORMER IRAQI MINISTER OF MISINFORMATION

A good friend sent this to me, perhaps some of you have seen it since it is making the rounds on the internet. It’s a good indication of the lunatic mindset that prevails in a totalitarian state. Where the chilling meets the laughingstock.

— Daily Updates —

14 April – Still no sighting of Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf (M.S.S.). Major media outlets promise lucrative personal-appearance contracts, talk show bookings, etc. Representatives of William Morris Agency sighted at Iraqi/Syrian border…

13 April – M.S.S. not included in “Death Pack” playing cards distributed to coalition forces. International uproar. NBC News: M.S.S. “curiously absent.”

12 April – Sahafomania grips globe. Amateurish website dedicated to M.S.S. crashes four separate servers. Visitor rates reach 4000 per second. Website inexplicably featured in daily papers, Reuters, AP, CNN, BBC and assorted lame talk shows.

10 April – M.S.S. begins ‘administrative leave’.

9 April – Last known remark of M.S.S., to John Burns of NY Times : “I NOW INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE TOO FAR FROM REALITY.”

— TREASURY OF DEATHLESS QUOTES —

“There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!”

“My feelings – as usual – we will slaughter them all”

“Our initial assessment is that they will all die”

“I blame Al-Jazeera – they are marketing for the Americans!”

“God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis.”

“We have destroyed 2 tanks, fighter planes, 2 helicopters and their shovels – We have driven them back.”

“They’re coming to surrender or be burned in their tanks.”

“No I am not scared and neither should you be!”

“We are not afraid of the Americans. Allah has condemned them. They are stupid. They are stupid” (dramatic pause) “and they are condemned.”

“The authority of the civil defense … issued a warning to the civilian population not to pick up any of those pencils because they are booby traps,” he said, adding that the British and American forces were “immoral mercenaries” and “war criminals” for such behavior.

“I am not talking about the American people and the British people,” he said. “I am talking about those mercenaries. … They have started throwing those pencils, but they are not pencils, they are booby traps to kill the children.”

“We have them surrounded in their tanks”

“The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies!”

“Lying is forbidden in Iraq. President Saddam Hussein will tolerate nothing but truthfulness as he is a man of great honor and integrity. Everyone is encouraged to speak freely of the truths evidenced in their eyes and hearts.”

“because we will behead you all”

“Let the American infidels bask in their illusion”

“I triple guarantee you, there are no American soldiers in Baghdad.”

Britain “is not worth an old shoe”

“we have given them a sour taste”

Of US troops: “They are most welcome. We will butcher them.”

“We will welcome them with bullets and shoes.”

“We are in control. They are in a state of hysteria. Losers, they think that by killing civilians and trying to distort the feelings of the people they will win. I think they will not win, those bastards.”

“We have placed them in a quagmire from which they can never emerge except dead”

“Washington has thrown their soldiers on the fire”

“I speak better English than this villain Bush”

“These cowards have no morals. They have no shame about lying”

“They’re not even [within] 100 miles [of Baghdad]. They are not in any

place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion … they are

trying to sell to the others an illusion.”

“Their failure in this regard is abysmal. They want to tell the world changes thought – as a matter of fact, they do not respect the world, they want to tell taxpayers and the domestic public to keep them deceived. We will embroil them, confuse them and keep them in the quagmire. They have begun to tell more lies so that they might continue with the perpetration of their crimes. May they be accursed.”

“We will kill them all……..most of them.”

Monday, April 14th, 2003

BASHING BASHAR:

When Hafez al Assad ruled Syria with an iron grip less paranoid but equally as ruthless as Saddam’s hold over Iraq, the Syrian dictator was often described as ” wily ” by journalists. His son and successor, Bashar al Assad seems to lack his father’s talent for reading the geopolitical situation and changing course. When the elder Assad took into account the impact of the ongoing Soviet collapse on Syria’s military fortunes, Assad promptly lined up with the United States to tackle his bitter enemy Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War. By contrast, Bashar embraced the Iraqi regime in its weakness, reputedly having formed a close friendship with Hussein’s maniacal son Uday and has granted not only asylum to his father’s defeated Baathist rivals but passage to jihadi radicals who wanted to fight the Americans. By contrast, Hafez Assad regarded the Islamists as a dire threat to the Syrian Baath, having crushed the Muslim Brotherhood at Hama.

In short, Bashar Assad is cultivating needless conflict with the United States by provoking U.S. military forces on the ground in Iraq when even the Neocon hawks would prefer to leave Syria alone If the U.S. strikes at Damascus it will be driven by the security needs of U.S. troops in Iraq, not Pentagon civilian Neocons who would much rather be putting pressure on Iran or turn to to North Korea. Syria is small beer on the rogue state all-star team.

Monday, April 14th, 2003

QUOTE OF THE DAY

” The Tree of Liberty needs to be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants “

-Thomas Jefferson

Sunday, April 13th, 2003

FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE ONLINE has a debate between Richard Perle and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the European Parliament’s Green Party.

Sunday, April 13th, 2003

THE RUSSIANS AND THE ROGUE STATE:

The UK Telegraph posted a story about captured Iraqi intelligence documents pointing to a far more extensive prewar collaboration between Russia’s SVR ( successor to the Foreign Intelligence Directorate of the KGB ) and Iraqi secret police than previously realized. Included is an offer of assassins and an awareness of Iraqi nuclear capacity. I have argued here and on H-Diplo that the would-be Regional Hegemons – Russia, China, France – are intentionally aiding the Rogue states in order to harm American interests. Here apparently is some proof:

“Moscow also provided Saddam with lists of assassins available for “hits” in the West and details of arms deals to neighbouring countries. The two countries also signed agreements to share intelligence, help each other to “obtain” visas for agents to go to other countries and to exchange information on the activities of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qa’eda leader.

The documents detailing the extent of the links between Russia and Saddam were obtained from the heavily bombed headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service in Baghdad yesterday.

The sprawling complex, which for years struck fear into Iraqis, has been the target of looters and ordinary Iraqis searching for information about relatives who disappeared during Saddam’s rule.

The documents, in Arabic, are mostly intelligence reports from anonymous agents and from the Iraqi embassy in Moscow. Tony Blair is referred to in a report dated March 5, 2002 and marked: “Subject – SECRET.” In the letter, an Iraqi intelligence official explains that a Russian colleague had passed him details of a private conversation between Mr Blair and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, at a meeting in Rome. The two had met for an annual summit on February 15, 2002, in Rome.

The document says that Mr Blair “referred to the negative things decided by the United States over Baghdad”. It adds that Mr Blair refused to engage in any military action in Iraq at that time because British forces were still in Afghanistan and that nothing could be done until after the new Kabul government had been set up.

It is not known how the Russians obtained such potentially sensitive information, but the revelation that Moscow passed it on to Baghdad is likely to have a devastating effect on relations between Britain and Russia and come as a personal blow to Mr Blair. The Prime Minister declared a “new era” in relations with President Putin when they met in Moscow in October 2001 in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks.

In spite of warnings by the British intelligence and security services of increasing Russian espionage in the West, Mr Blair fostered closer relations with Mr Putin, visiting his family dacha near Moscow, supporting the Russians in their war in Chechnya, and arranging for the Russian president to have tea with the Queen.

Mr Blair was surprised and dismayed when Mr Putin joined France in threatening to veto the American and British resolution on Iraq in the UN, but continued to differentiate between President Putin and President Jacques Chirac.

The Prime Minister refused to join the French, German and Russian leaders in their summit on Iraq this weekend, but still regarded Mr Putin as an ally in global politics.

The list of assassins is referred to in a paper dated November 27, 2000. In it, an agent signing himself “SAB” says that the Russians have passed him a detailed list of killers. The letter does not describe any assignments that the assassins might be given but it indicates just how much Moscow was prepared to share with Baghdad. Another document, dated March 12, 2002, appears to confirm that Saddam had developed, or was developing nuclear weapons. The Russians warned Baghdad that if it refused to comply with the United Nations then that would give the United States “a cause to destroy any nuclear weapons”.


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